OAKLAND, California (AFP/REUTERS) - The bodies of 24 people have been pulled from the smouldering ruins of a warehouse near San Francisco, authorities said on Sunday.

Up to 40 people were feared dead in a huge fire that tore through a rave party being held there, authorities had warned earlier..

Oakland Fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed said most of those who perished in the blaze that started about 11.30pm on Friday were thought to have died on the upper floor of the two-storey warehouse known as Oakland Ghostship.

The rave party featured a little-known act called Golden Donna and several other performers. It was unclear if any of the DJs were among the dead.

“I literally felt my skin peeling and my lungs being suffocated by smoke,” Bob Mule, a photographer who lives in the building, told Fox television affiliate KTVU. “I couldn’t get the fire extinguisher to work.”

Another artist told the station that the fire broke out in the back of the building where some 18 artists shared space.

The man, who was not identified, said he had tried to help a fellow artist who had broken his ankle flee the inferno, but was hampered by the smoke and flames as well as clutter.

“I hope he is ok,” he told the station, his voice breaking down.

“It’s just so hard to accept that some really wonderful people’s lives got cut short,” said artist and activist Jenny Yang, 34, waiting for news of missing friends at Eli’s, an Oakland bar that opened early as a gathering spot.

Video footage posted on social media showed flames shooting from the structure, which was adorned with elaborate graffiti and colorful murals, as fire vehicles pumped plumes of water and heavy smoke engulfed the neighbourhood.

“I don’t have high hopes,” said a woman who had four friends among the missing, declining to give her name. “We’ve just spent the night calling hospitals and listening to police scanners.”

Fire officials said drones equipped with thermal imaging capabilities would be flown at the scene to detect “hot spots” that might still be burning inside the building.

The fire was described as the deadliest tragedy in Oakland since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in northern California that left 63 people dead.

The deadliest nightclub fire in the United States in recent decades was in 2003, when pyrotechnic effects by the rock band Great White set off an inferno at The Station nightclub in Rhode Island, killing about 100 people.

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